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Obama agenda: Letterman performance

On Letterman last night, "Obama made his case for changing the nation's health care system. He also expanded on comments he made Sunday on CNN about former president Jimmy Carter's assertion that some of the heated criticism directed at him is because of his race. 'I was actually black before the election,' Obama told Letterman. 'The American people … gave me this extraordinary honor. That tells you a lot, I think, about where the country is at.'"

More: "Obama conceded that whenever a president tries to bring about 'significant' change, such as with his health care plan, 'there is a certain segment of the population that gets riled up.' On Afghanistan, Obama indicated he would not yet make a decision on sending more U.S. troops. 'I've got to make sure that the policy in place was worthy of their sacrifice,' he said."

On the humorous side… "During the taping in New York, Letterman offered up his top 10 reasons why the president had agreed to do the show, including that Obama said yes without thinking about it, … "Like Bush did with Iraq," Letterman said. But Obama joked that he showed up because of the unusual prop that an audience member brought to the show: "The main reason I'm here? I want to see that heart-shaped potato." The woman tossed the potato to Letterman and agreed to let Obama keep it.

"In what would be a dramatic next step in its drive to insulate itself from K Street, the White House is strongly considering limiting the ability of lobbyists to serve on federal advisory panels designed to bring the voices of outside interests into the halls of the administration," Roll Call says.

And as has been explored in David Mendell's "Obama: From Promise to Power," the New York Daily News gets a sneak peak at another book, "Barack and Michelle," which details the Obamas' marital woes, centered around something lots of couples fight over -- raising the kids.